1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of undersea cable, and in particular, to an undersea cable system and a cable landing station shared by a plurality of carriers.
2. Statement of the Problem
Undersea cable networks are used to connect landmasses separated by seas or oceans. The landmasses can include islands, continents, etc. One or more undersea cables are used to link together multiple landmasses and exchange communications between the landmasses.
Optical cables are widely used for undersea cable systems due to their high bandwidth capacity. An optical cable typically comprises a bundle of multiple optical fibers. In addition, each fiber can carry multiple signals through use of some manner of compression, multiplexing, etc. One commonly used capacity expansion technique for optical fibers is a wavelength multiplexing technique. Separate wavelengths of light can be injected onto a fiber at one end and received and separately processed at the other end. Each wavelength can therefore convey an individual data stream.
In the prior art, each carrier installs, operates, and maintains their own router (and any other cable terminating equipment). Typically, due to their inherently high cost, multiple communication carriers share the expense of installing and operating such a cable system. As a result, communications of these multiple carriers must be exchanged while yet being kept segregated from the communications of other carriers. A prior art cable landing station therefore includes as many routers as there are carriers, leading to crowding in the installation, complexity, and excessive cost. In addition, controlling the resulting heating of multiple, essentially redundant pieces of equipment can be expensive and difficult.